


Why Things Are

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Questions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 19:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15669555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: "Don't you ever wonder 'why me'?" Mikhail asked. Apparently he was going to insist on having a conversation when they could just do this in silence."No point," Jin replied. "Regardless of why, it still happened."





	Why Things Are

"Don't you ever wonder 'why me'?" Mikhail asked. Apparently he was going to insist on having a conversation when they could just do this in silence.

"No point," Jin replied. "Regardless of why, it still happened."

Mikhail hummed at his response. "I know he's an arsehole and all, but I just wonder why the Architect created a world where this kind of stuff can happen."

Presumably, when Mikhail said 'stuff' he meant the bodies piled in front of them. A massacre left by an unknown force, though no doubt Indoline. It always was. "You answered your own question."

"Not really," he said. "We know he's an arsehole, but how does he decide who specifically to be an arsehole to?"

"Probably doesn't," Jin said. "Though I'm sure a few people I know would delight in telling you how the Architect rewards those who live good lives and destroy those who give in to vice."

"Oh, I don't doubt it," Mikhail said, a wry grin gracing his face. "But anyone who listens to that Indoline dogma is just full of crap. And who's to say we're the ones being destroyed, anyway? Guess I've been through hell, but I'm still here."

"How so?" Jin would say that if there was an Architect controlling things, and he'd hazard a guess that there was, considering Malos' half memories of him, the life he had lived was definitely on the side of being punished rather than rewarded. "I don't think this life could be described as a reward for any good deed."

"Well we live longer," he said. Jin didn't know how to respond to that. The dangerous life they were living meant that they should probably have died before this point, but they hadn't. He didn't want to mention that for all they knew, Mikhail wouldn't live any longer than a normal human; he was barely in his twenties.

"Is that really a reward?" He asked. "People who live to be old just experience more suffering." People who live to be old lose the people who used to be around them. Or they see the people who used to be young suffer even more and lose even more, becoming sad and angry. That was the truth of it, but Jin left it unsaid.

"Well, it means I get to live more," Mikhail said with a shrug. Maybe Mik wasn't quite 'sad and angry', then. "I meet more people and get more opportunities to do something with my life. I get to watch the world change and maybe one day be a part of changing it."

Given the change in Mikhail's tone and mood, it was probably a good time for the subject to move on. At least before existential angst turned into overblown optimism. "Perhaps one day, an extended life of opportunities could land you a date."

Mikhail spluttered, looking vaguely outraged, but Jin knew when the man (boy? It was hard to see him as a man at times, given their past and Mikhail's woefully lacking maturity) was just acting. "Damn right it will," he said, recovering quickly and grinning at him.

"So did you manage to answer your question?" He asked, aware that their conversation had drastically gone off track. "Why us?"

Mikhail glanced up at the sky, presumably watching the sun beginning to peek out over the horizon where the Cloud Sea met the slowly lightening sky. After a few moments of clearly intense thought, he shrugged. "No idea," he said. "Somehow, I doubt that the Architect really manages what happens to who. So many people exist; it'd just be really boring."

"Maybe you could ask him about that one day," Jin said. Of course, the plan was to kill the Architect, but there was no reason not to ask for the answers to these questions when they made it.

"Perhaps," Mikhail said, turning back to the gory scene that had provoked the conversation in the first place. "Perhaps not. Not really the kind of thing you need to think about at these times, honestly."

"You're the one who brought it up," he chided, elbowing Mikhail lightly in the ribs. "Existentialism can wait, but the Praetorium vultures won't. Let's leave while we still can."

And so they left, carrying a bag full of core crystals and other valuables as they left. The questions asked weighed heavily on Jin's mind for a while. But even if they were being punished by the Architect for their actions, Jin knew he and Mikhail would stand by their convictions until the final task was carried out.


End file.
